Proper Right-Turns Prevent Tractor-Trailer (semitruck) Accidents.
Recently I was preparing to depose the truck driver in a semitruck – car accident case I have. Laypeople typically use the word semitruck when the proper term for an 18 wheeler is a tractor-trailer. The tractor is the truck part of the dual. It has the engine and the wheels that propel it, and it's where the cab is located, where the truck driver operates the vehicle.
Improper Right Turns Can Lead To Collisions
The main issue in this case deals with the proper way a tractor-trailer driver should make a right turn and in this case, a right into an industrial building where he was dropping off cargo. We have all seen 18 wheelers make right turns where the back tires of the trailer on the passenger side run over the curb. This is called offtracking; some even call this cheating. During a turn, the trailer wheels cannot precisely follow the same path as tractor's front wheels because of the length of the trailer, the radius of the turn and the width of the lane. Longer vehicles off-track more than shorter ones. If the truck is pulling two trailers, called tandem trailers, the rear wheels of the last trailer will off-track the most.
One way to stop off-tracking so that the trailer stays off the curb (or worse, the sidewalk), is to steer the front end of the truck wide enough around the corner so the rear end wheels of the trailer do not run over the curb. It can be tricky because a truck driver will often want to enter the other lane of traffic in order to turn as wide as possible. Another unsafe cheating way to make a right turn is when the truck driver moves his truck far to the left and straddles the most immediate lane to the left so that he can make and easy wide right turn.
The danger of improperly moving so far to the left comes from the resulting unoccupied/open right lane. Other vehicles on the road may interpret the driver to be making a left turn, or some other reason for the left side cheating or lane change, will see the empty right lane and pull up along side the tractor-trailer. If the truck driver isn't paying attention and doesn't see the vehicle on the right, he or she will make the right turn, leaving no room for the vehicle now occupying that space and thus causing an accident.
The Proper Way To Turn Right
The proper way for a big rig or tractor-trailer to make the right turn is to pull up further than the entire lane that is being entered into, then start a rounded right turn and head back into the right lane where you intend to finish the turn. These pictures will give you an example of what I’m talking about:
Figure A is the proper right turn some call a button hook. Figure B is an improper turn often called a jug handle turn.
I will use various driving training manuals and the state’s (DMV or Secretary of State) CDL license booklet to force him to admit the proper way to make a right turn and that his way or the way that he did it, as in our case, was improper and unsafe. I often will ask the driver to admit to certain safety rules. If he admits to them he agrees with my position, if he or she does not, he looks foolish, unbelievable and appears to be an unsafe driver.
The truck drivers defense is that while he was making his right turn, my client pulled up next to his trailer and it was her fault that she was pinched and hit. First, he should’ve seen this before turning. With proper placed mirrors, the side of a truck does not have this alleged blind spot. (See other article written by me describing or detail.) Second, if he was making a proper right turn there is no space or gap for a car to enter between the right curb and the trailer.
